Looping

ID:165905
 
Oct 17 2006, 12:47 pm
 
proc/loopingproc()
    spawn(600)
        world << "AGAIN AGAIN AGAIN!"


If you loop something with the spawn() thingy like that, it won't made the world go kersplodes every 100 or so loops, right?

I need to loop for what I wanna do but the people on my games don't like kersplodes; but the thing I wanna do won't benefit them at all so if it'll significantly reduce the lifespan of Dream Daemon I probably shouldn't do it :(
Oct 17 2006, 12:50 pm
Why not use a while()?
Oct 17 2006, 12:52 pm
In response to Mechanios
because my mind doesn't work that way :(

and I dunno
Oct 17 2006, 12:52 pm
In response to Cowdude
Well, what're you trying to loop? haha
Oct 17 2006, 12:55 pm
In response to Mechanios
I'm just making an NPC say something to the view over and over to bug people or something
Oct 17 2006, 12:58 pm
In response to Cowdude
yea so under New() for the NPC just call src.blah()

mob/NPC/proc/blah()
     while(src)
          sleep(600) 
//using spawn would make the loop go over and over cause spawn contionues the code, 
//but still waiting 600 ticks. sleep stops the code and waits for 600 ticks.
          world << "Har Har HAR!"
Oct 17 2006, 12:59 pm
In response to Mechanios
except I said view so it'd be "view(src)" instead of "world" but k
Oct 17 2006, 1:00 pm
In response to Cowdude
Haha. My bad.
Oct 17 2006, 3:03 pm
Yep, that'll make it not kersplode.

The reason it kersplodes is because something called the 'stack' gets too big. The stack for a procedure records where it's been called from so it can return data to the right place, basically. Spawn() means that it's starting a new stack, rather then continually adding to the same one. If you kept adding to the same one, ala this:

proc/Kersplode()
    sleep(600)
    Kersplode()


the stack for the Kersplode() proc will eventually overrun the limit that has been set for it, and it will die a horrible, painful, stack-overflow death.
Oct 17 2006, 8:29 pm
In response to Jp
You should try to use <code>while()</code> whenever you can.
For example, the <code>Kersplode()</code> proc can be rewritten like this:

proc/Kersplode()
    while(world)
        sleep(600)
        ...
Oct 21 2006, 3:39 pm
In response to Android Data
Are you sure the While proc won't stack up and kill the game? :( it just crashed twice in the last 6 hours or so :( maybe I'll just take out those NPCs and see how long it lasts. The game usually lasts a good 100-300 (yeah it varies that much) hours; until today it was up at least 112 (then it crashed and I updated and added the NPCs this thread was originally about)


The NPCs are awesome, though! :D
Oct 21 2006, 8:37 pm
In response to Cowdude
Using <code>sleep()</code> would stack the procs up and crash the proc eventually. Using <code>while()</code> is harmless, unless you remove the <code>sleep()</code> within it, or it'll crash the server.